Strange Brew
Strange Brew (2009) — Anthology Genre and Sub-Genres All Urban Fantasy Theme Witches and magic Editor and Authors Editor: P.N. Elrod Contributors: P.N. Elrod, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Karen Chance, Charlaine Harris, Faith Hunter, Caitlin Kittredge, Jenna Maclaine Description Strange Brew is a collection of nine fantasy tales--mostly urban fantasy set in a world not that much different from our own (no matter where it is in history), only with magic. ~ SFRevu Review Strange Brew is an urban fantasy anthology loaded with magic, mystery and mayhem. With contributions from some of the genre’s top authors Strange Brew offers consistent high quality reading across all of the nine stories contained within its pages. The stories are on average about 40 pages long. At first glance this is a bit of an odd length. Too long for a short story and too short for a novella but either way the page length and content come together and really work well. Strange Brew is a witch and magic themed collection, so every story contains at least one witch. Four of the stories feature vampires in addition to witches. All of the stories in Strange Brew serve up a respectable helping of mystery. ~ Strange Brew (Anthology) Ed. by P.N.Elrod : I love Vampire Supernatural Elements Witches, wizard, vampires, werewolves, shifters, were-war mage, resurrection witch, zombie war, skinwalker, vampire hunter, magical suicide bombers, blood witches, witch, vampire, evil wizard, goddess Morrigan List of Stories Synopsis by Story Seeing Eye — Patricia Briggs Alpha & Omega #1.5 A blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother—and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. ~ Strange Brew | Macmillan Last Call — Jim Butcher Dresden Files series #10.7 — between Small Favor and Turn Coat. Wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers—the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer. ~ Strange Brew | Macmillan Death Warmed Over — Rachel Caine — Holly & Andrew series of shorts #1 Holly Anne Caldwell is a resurrection witch—brews potions to call dead souls back into their bodies. The testimony of the revived is no longer admissible in court, so most of her jobs come from the police department. Now the police want her to bring back Andrew Toland, bad-ass hero of the zombie war of 1875. Trouble is, she fell in love with him the last time she called him back. The dead can't stay resurrected long, so she's just going to lose him again. But someone is killing resurrection witches and she may be next in line. ~ Death Warmed Over—ISFdb NOTE: Rachel's short story is a Holly and Andrew story! You can also find stories about these characters in the Kicking It and Hex Appeal anthologies. ~ UF short fiction by Rachel Caine Vegas Odds — Karen Chance — Cassandra Palmer #4.3 Lia de Croissets, half-human, half-Were, is a war mage for the War Mage Corps. Because they don't trust Weres, Lia is assigned the thankless duty of training cadets to keep her busy and out of trouble. That is until the cadets get violent destroying her house and injuring her boyfriend. Lia must track down who cast the spell that set off the cadets to lift the spell and stop them. ~ Take A Chance: Vegas Odds Hecate's Golden Eye — P.N. Elrod — Vampire Files #11.5 Jack Flmeming vampire PI mystery. Set in 1930’s Chicago the story involves the theft of a cursed necklace. The necklace is reputed to kill any man who touches it – so it’s a good thing that hard-boiled detective Jack is already dead. Mystery and vampires are combined to good effect as the investigation takes some surprising twists and turns as the plot unfolds. ~ Strange Brew (Anthology) Ed. by P.N.Elrod : I love Vampire Bacon — Charlaine Harris — Sookie Stackhouse series #9.1 A revenge story, in which Dahlia hatches an elaborate plot to bring a witch to justice. Vampire Dahlia joins forces with a witch, Kathy, from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. ~ ISFdb & I Love Vamires & Macmillan NOTE: Dahlia is a vampire who lives in Rhodes, the city Sookie visits for the vampire summit in All Together Dead. Sookie does not appear in this story, which happens before that novel. ~ ISFdb Signatures of the Dead — Faith Hunter — Jane Yellowrock #0.5 The story is told from the perspective of Molly, a witch who is asked by the police to track down a group of killer vampires. The star of the story is actually Jane Yellowrock, skinwalker and vampire hunter, who has the job of actually finding and exterminating the vampires. This story is an introduction for the Jane Yellowrock character, who is going to be the protagonist of her own series of books. ~ Strange Brew | Macmillan Ginger: Caitlin Kittredge — Nocturne City #3.5 Sunny Swann, witch, isn't brave like her cousin Luna Wilder, police detective and werewolf. She just showed up at the trial of Gordon Trotter to give her cousin moral support. She wasn't expecting magical suicide bombers and insane blood witches. Now she'll have to find the courage to fight them. ~ Bibliography: Ginger In this story a witch named Sunny and her cousin Luna (a Detective and werewolf) are at a murder trial when another witch storms into the courtroom and tries to kill everyone with his magic. Afterward, Sunny receives a strange phone call and sets out on a mission to find out what's going on behind some of the strange happenings in the city. ~ Goodreads reader | ♥ Sarah Dark Sins — Jenna Maclaine — Cin Craven series #1.5 Set in 1818, this happens after Wages of Sin and before Grave Sins, according to the timeline information on the author's Web site. Cin Craven is still trying to gain control of her witch powers now that she is a vampire. While in Venice, encounters with an evil wizard and the goddess Morrigan reveal her abilities for both good and evil. ~ ISFdb: Dark Sins Publishing Information * Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin * Book Page: Strange Brew | Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Karen Chance, Pat Elrod, Caitlin Kittredge, Faith Hunter, and Jenna Maclaine | Macmillan * Book data: Paperback, 372 pages, Published July 7-2009, ISBN-0312383363 Category:Anthologies